Australia Gets Own Official Space Agency

The Federal Government has revealed Australia is finally getting its own NASA style space agency. While it’s a little early to declare an Australian mission to Mars, the benefits will be astronomical (pun intended).

The establishment of the agency will create thousands of jobs for Australians. It will also give industries such as communications, agriculture, mining, oil and gas new opportunities for growth. The possibilities are literally endless. Think of things such as farming in space, creating robots and other doodads for exploration. Stopping aliens from blowing us up. Or even creating a mega, mega speaker so we can announce our presence to the rest of the universe. Anyway, as I said: endless.

The agency will give a much needed boost to Australia’s domestic space industry, which is currently worth around $3.94 billion (88 per cent of which was contributed by the private sector). In comparison, that is about 0.8 per cent of the US $345 billion global space economy. However, a review has said that the establishment of the agency means that the space industry in Australia could grow it to a worth of $12 billion by 2030.

The government have allocated $41 million to the establishment of the agency as part of this month’s federal budget. This amount has been called by the Minister for Jobs and Innovation Michaelia Cash, a “kickstarter” amount for the agency.

Former CSRIO boss Meagan Clark will be formally appointed as head of the agency for its first year of operations beginning on July 1st.

The government has yet to decide a space to put the agency, though Clark has told the ABC that the nation’s capital is the most logical location.

“We need to engage internationally and also to coordinate nationally and part of that activity best to be centered in Canberra,” she said.

She also told the ABC that the space agency will improve the lives of Australians.

“You ask yourself — why are we doing that? And it’s really to improve the lives of all Australians and I think to inspire Australians about what Australia really can really do in the space industry,” she said.